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Kathleen Kenyon biography

I m pleased to announce publication of the first full length biography of archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon by Miriam Davis, a historian at Delta State University.

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, Feb 29, 2008

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I'm pleased to announce publication of the first full length biography
of archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon by Miriam Davis, a historian at Delta
State University. Miriam had full access to the Kenyon family's
materials and interviewed dozens of archaeologists on 4 continents for
her work.

The book is published in a series sponsored by the Institute of
Archaeology, University College London, which provided the peer
review. It's also been reviewed by Bill Dever and Tom Holland, among
others (see their comments on our website).

Dame Kathleen Kenyon has always been a larger-than-life figure, likely
the most influential woman archaeologist of the 20th century. In the
first full-length biography of Kenyon, Miriam Davis recounts not
only her many achievements in the field but also her personal side,
known to very few of her contemporaries. Her public side is a catalog
of major successes: discovering the oldest city at Jericho with its
amazing collection of plastered skulls; untangling the archaeological
complexities of ancient Jerusalem and identifying the original City of
David; participating in the discipline's most famous all-woman
excavation at Great Zimbabwe. Her development (with Sir Mortimer
Wheeler) of stratigraphic trenching methods has been universally
emulated by archaeologists for over half a century. Her private
lifeher childhood as daughter of the director of the British Museum,
her accidental choice of a career in archaeology, her working at
bombed sites in London during the blitz, and her solitary retirement
to Walesare generally unknown. Davis provides a balanced and
illuminating picture of both the public Dame Kenyon and the private
person.

The book will be available in paperback next week in the US and in
April in the UK, EUrope, and the Middle East.